Trump and Mike Johnson promote ‘great replacement’ theory to unveil election bill at Mar-a-Lago

Republican frontunner and House Speaker echo far-right conspiracy while promoting redundant measure to ban noncitizens from voting

Alex Woodward
THE INDEPENDENT UK

House Speaker Mike Johnson travelled to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to promote a bill that would ban noncitizens from voting, which is already illegal.

Mr Johnson, behind a lectern bearing the club’s logo, claimed that “election integrity” is tied to a “lack of border security,” which he claims is the most important issue facing American voters.

With the former president at his side on Friday, Mr Johnson promoted legislation that would require citizenship to cast a ballot, alleging that Democratic officials’ “designs” for an “open border” intend to “turn these people into voters.”

The “many millions of illegals in the country” could “turn an election,” he said.

Friday’s event – featuring the man who is third in line for the presidency alongside the presumed Republican nominee for the presidency – echoed the baseless far-right “great replacement” conspiracy theory that appeared to be designed to sow doubt about election outcomes in the event Mr Trump loses a second time.

The so-called “great replacement” theory posits that Democratic officials are intentionally allowing nonwhite minorities into the US to replace voting populations.

Mr Johnson played a central role among members of Congress in rejecting Mr Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, and he took the lead in a brief to the US Supreme Court with 125 other House Republicans to support Mr Trump’s failed legal challenge to overturn President Joe Biden’s victories in several states.

He later voted against certifying Mr Biden’s win during a joint session of Congress on 6 January 2021, even after the Trump-fuelled riots at the US Capitol.

In the months after Mr Trump’s election loss in 2020, GOP officials began promoting so-called “election integrity” legislation that echoed many of the false claims promoted by Mr Trump and his allies to discredit election officials and policies that certified his loss.

There is virtually no evidence that noncitizens are voting in federal elections at a scale that Mr Trump has baselessly alleged, continuing his false narrative of widespread election fraud that paved the way for a mob of his supporters to storm the halls of Congress to reject the results by force.

Donald Trumps speaks at Mar-a-Lago on 12 April with House Speaker Mike Johnson. (AP)

Here, his ongoing claims that elections are “rigged” against him dovetailed with his anti-immigrant platform, as Republicans make US-Mexico border security a central pillar of 2024 campaigns.

Federal law already prohibits noncitizens from casting ballots in federal elections, and only a handful of states have allowed noncitizens to vote in local or municipal elections.

“As fact-checkers across the board have made clear, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The American people see through today’s stunt, which amounts to House Republicans wasting time,” according to a statement from White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates.

In his remarks, Mr Trump claimed “we have an election problem” and demanded that the US-Mexico border be “closed.”

“Millions and millions are pouring in that no one’s reporting,” he said. “Some are terrorists … They come from jails and prisons, they come from mental institutions and insane asylums They come from all over the world.”

Mr Trump – who has previously stated that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the US – has repeatedly falsely alleged that unreported millions of people are pouring into the country, which is not supported by federal government data.

Arab Americans Should Not Settle For The Lesser Of Two Evils – OpEd

 April 13, 2024  

By Ray Hanania

Wouldn’t it be nice to hear Palestinian and Israeli activists and leaders call out the extremists on both sides, instead of acting like the defenders of one side only.

I was on a radio show in Chicago recently and, while I condemned Hamas for the horrific violence of Oct. 7, I also condemned the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead of joining me, the two pro-Israel guests immediately went into “defend Israel mode,” insisting that the problem is that Hamas uses “human shields” and Israel has no choice but to kill Palestinians.

I tried to get them to criticize Israel’s government, but they refused. In fact, read many of the op-eds in Western newspapers and you will see activists on both sides closing their eyes to the atrocities committed by their side, while aggressively and often exaggerating the atrocities committed by the other.

One of the questions I was asked related to the #AbandonBiden movement, which has successfully convinced many Arab and Muslim Americans to vote against President Joe Biden’s reelection in the Democratic primaries. They asked if Arabs “see” that, by rejecting Biden, they will “get” former President Donald Trump, “who moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem?”

I was asked: “Biden is the lesser of two evils to you, right?” But why do Arab Americans have to pick the lesser of two evils when we vote? In doing that, we end up with “evil” either way.

Why do we not have leaders who are in the center, who see the hate, the extremism and the violence of both sides — Israel’s government and Hamas extremists?

Wouldn’t that be a novel idea: picking someone who speaks the truth, not one-sided political propaganda. Someone who believes that both Hamas and the Netanyahu government are equally guilty of atrocities, war crimes and the killing of women, children and the elderly?

Because that is the truth that neither side wants to admit: their side is just as wrong as those they are criticizing.

I was asked what Biden could do to regain the support of the Arabs and Muslims who voted against him in the Democratic primaries, including in six swing states. I said that I had been reading the opinion columns being pushed by the mainstream American news media, which is partisan and today leans to the far left. They were defending Israel, defending Biden and blaming everything on one side. I tried to say that, maybe, these columnists should speak out about their own activists and leaders, who condemn one side, the Palestinians and Hamas, and say nothing about the crimes of the side they support.

In other words, the president cannot regain the backing of those who support the #AbandonBiden movement simply by pandering to them politically.

Biden empowered Hamas to attack Israel by refusing to condemn the Israeli assaults that took place in the two years prior to Oct. 7, during which time he was the so-called leader of the free world. He also needs to roll back his support of the Israeli government’s actions in more than a rhetorical manner: by cutting American funding and arms supplies to Tel Aviv. Biden must stop allowing one side to continue its carnage.

Do both and maybe that will suggest to Arab and Muslim Americans that Biden cares about peace, not politics. That he opposes violence of all kinds, not just violence against political allies who support him or that he favors. That he applies principles and morality to the actions of both sides and judges them harshly, condemning them both at the same press conference without worrying about the political repercussions.

Arabs and Muslims in America are no different to the rest of the American public. They want reason. They want moderation in policies and a leadership that is smart and driven by the principles that make America the true democracy it can be.

All someone needs to do is step away from the extremist sidelines and into the center. And speak the truth. Speak the truth about the Israeli government’s violence and its rejection of peace over the past two decades under Netanyahu and his late mentor Ariel Sharon. Horrific leaders. Netanyahu set the tone for the environment of haters in Israel who oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, with that hate-driven rejection of peace spurring the expansion of extremism among Palestinians.

Speak the truth about Hamas and other Palestinian extremists who have opposed the peace process since Day 1, when Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo I Accord in Washington in 1993 — a moving moment that I witnessed personally.

All these people who loudly scream, both in their rhetoric and their writings, that the other side is evil and that their side is the victim are only encouraging the growing carnage and conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. They are not offering reason or common sense and they are not embracing the principles of morality or peace.

The lesser of two evils is not a real option. Those who embrace it and advocate it over acknowledging the truth, no matter whether they are Palestinian or Israeli, Arab or Jew, are only being evil themselves.

For a future of peace for Palestinians and Israelis, the war is against the lesser of two evils, not each other.

Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian-American former journalist and political columnist. Email him at rghanania@gmail.com.

ILLEGALS OVERRUN RESIDENTS

Israeli settlers storm West Bank village, setting cars and homes ablaze

By Kareem Khadder, Zeena Saifi and Benjamin Brown,

 CNN
 Fri April 12, 2024

A view of damaged houses and burning vehicles after a raid by Jewish settlers on the Mughir town near Ramallah, West Bank on April 12, 2024. Issam Rimawi/Anadolu/Getty Images
CNN —

Hundreds of armed Israeli settlers stormed a village in the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to several homes and cars in one of the largest attacks by settlers this year, according to Palestinian officials.

At least one Palestinian man was killed by gunfire in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, according to the head of the village council Amin Abu-Alia, who is related to the deceased.

About 25 others were also injured in the rampage, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, the scale of which has not been seen since hundreds of settlers stormed through the villages of Turmusayya and Huwara in two separate incidents last year.

According to Abu-Alia, Israeli security forces had informed Palestinian officials that the settlers were looking for an Israeli teenager who had gone missing earlier in the day.

He estimated that between 1,000 and 1,200 settlers surrounded the village, and around 500 stormed it just after midday local time on Friday, blocking all the roads in the area.

The settlers attacked the village, raided homes, and fired guns at residents, he said. Videos obtained by CNN show parts of the village burning, with smoke billowing over several buildings and settlers lobbing rocks. Houses and cars are seen completely burned up, with sounds of gunfire and clashes heard in the background.


Israeli settlers wearing headscarves are seen near billowing smoke. Reuters

According to Abu-Alia, the Israeli military arrived at the scene at around 3 p.m. local time, but did not stop the settlers from attacking the village. Instead, Israeli soldiers allowed them to raid homes, prevented Palestinian residents from moving around and blocked ambulances from reaching the injured, he alleged.

Abu-Alia told CNN settlers stole approximately 70 sheep from the Palestinian village.

Reached for comment by CNN, the Israel Defense Forces said “violent riots were instigated in multiple locations in the area” following a search for the missing boy, and that Israeli forces tried to remove the settlers.

RELATED VIDEO‘That sounds like ethnic cleansing’: CNN questions lead figure in Israel’s settler movement

“Security forces operated to disperse the violent riots. During the incident, rocks were hurled at IDF soldiers, who responded with fire. Hits were identified. Furthermore, IDF and Israel Border Police forces operated to withdraw Israeli civilians who entered the town of Al Mughayyir,” it added.

A statement from the Palestinian Red Crescent said 11 ambulances drove to the scene of Friday’s attack to pick up the wounded, reporting that several people were injured by bullet fragments.

Earlier on Friday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said IDF forces had been working to search for the missing 14-year-old, who was last seen near an Israeli settlement and around 2 kilometers from Al-Mughayyir.


“IDF forces from the air and on the ground, including special forces, have been working since the early afternoon, along with the Israel Police and other forces, in the search for the 14-year-old boy who has been missing since this morning in the Malachei Ha’Shalom area in the Binyamin Brigade,” he said in a post on X.

A Palestinian is killed as Israeli settlers rampage in his village and troops fire on stone-throwers

BY JACK JEFFREY AND JULIA FRANKEL, 

ASSOCIATED PRESS - 04/13/24 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed into a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, shooting and setting houses and cars on fire. The rampage killed a Palestinian man and wounded 25 others, Palestinian health officials said.

The violence was the latest in an escalation in the West Bank that has accompanied Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli rights group said the settlers were searching for a missing 14-year-old boy from their settlement. After the rampage, Israeli troops said they were still searching for the teen.

The killing came after an Israeli raid overnight killed two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant, in confrontation with Israeli forces.

Palestinian health officials say over 460 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli fire since the war erupted in October.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said that settlers stormed into the village of al-Mughayyir late Friday, searching for the Israeli boy. The group said that settlers were shooting and setting houses on fire in the village.

Videos posted to X by the rights group showed dark clouds of smoke billowing from burning cars as gunshots rang out. A photo posted by the group showed what appeared to be a crowd of masked settlers.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that one man was brought dead to a hospital and 25 were treated for wounds. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said eight of the injured were hit by live fire.

The slain man was later identified by his family as 26-year-old Jehad Abu Alia. His father, Afif Abu Alia, said he was shot and killed but was unsure whether the fatal bullet was fired by an armed settler or an Israeli soldier.

“My son went with others to defend our land and honor, and this is what happened,” Abu Alia said from a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his son’s body had been transported.

The attack was condemned by Mohammad Mustafa, the new Palestinian prime minister.

The Israeli army said it was searching for the missing Israeli teen, and that forces had opened fire when stones were hurled at soldiers by Palestinians. It said “hits were identified,” and soldiers also cleared out Israeli settlers from the village.

“As of this moment, the violent riots have been dispersed and there are no Israeli civilians present within the town,” it said.

United States officials, including President Joe Biden, have repeatedly raised concerns about a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel’s war with the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip began more than six months ago. Rights groups have long accused the military of failing to halt settler violence or punish soldiers for wrongdoing.

Earlier on Friday, two Palestinians were killed in confrontations with Israeli forces in the northern West Bank, Palestinian medics and the military said. Hamas said one of those killed was a local commander.


The military said the target of the soldiers’ raid was Mohammed Daraghmeh, a local Hamas commander. It said Daraghmeh was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers who discovered weapons in his car. The army alleged that Daraghmeh had been planning attacks on Israeli targets but provided no evidence. It also said assailants hurled explosives at soldiers.

The Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza.

Israel said Friday it had opened a new crossing for aid trucks into hard-hit northern Gaza as ramps up aid deliveries to the besieged enclave. However, the United Nations says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza because of persistent distribution difficulties.

Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,600 Palestinians and wounded over 76,200, the Gaza Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Israel says it has killed over 12,000 militants during the war, but it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.

Three Palestinians killed in West Bank military raids and settler rampage

13 April 2024 - 

Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian who died during an Israeli settler attack on their village of al-Mughayyir, in Ramallah, in the Israeli occupied West Bank on April 12 2024.
Image: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman

Ramallah — Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians, including a member of the armed wing of Hamas, in raids in the occupied West Bank on Friday and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported at least one person was killed in an Israeli settler rampage near Ramallah.

The Israeli military said Mohammad Omar Daraghmeh, whom it described as the head of Hamas infrastructure in the Tubas area of the Jordan valley was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces. It said a number of weapons and military-style equipment, including automatic rifles were found in his vehicle.

Hamas confirmed Daraghmeh's death and his membership of its armed Al Qassam Brigades.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said another man was killed by Israeli forces conducting a raid in the Al-Far'a refugee camp in Tubas. Hamas mourned the man’s death but did not claim him as a member.

The military said forces carrying out the operation opened fire on Palestinians who threw explosive devices and killed one man it said was attempting to attack them.

Israel has stepped up military raids in the West Bank since launching an unrelenting assault on Gaza after a Hamas-led October 7 attack on its southern communities and military bases.

Later on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said one person was shot dead in al-Mughayyer near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah as residents reported of dozens of Jewish settlers rampaging through their village. It was not immediately clear whether he was shot by Israeli forces or settlers.

The Palestine Red Crescent said at least 10 people were wounded, most of them by live fire, and that some ambulances trying to reach the area were shot at.

The head of al-Mughayyer’s local council, Ameen Abu Alia, said settlers had previously attacked the village but Friday’s raid was the most intense, with some 400 armed settlers, backed by military forces, firing at residents, vandalising the village and setting several houses and cars ablaze.

He said they were still assessing the damage when the Israeli military put the village under strict closure, placing a checkpoint at its only entrance.

In unverified videos circulating on social media, gunshots could be heard and heavy smoke was seen rising from a car set ablaze as residents called for help.

The Israeli military said its forces put up roadblocks and launched a search for a 14-year-old who had gone missing in the area, who police described as a Jewish resident of Jerusalem.

During the searches, security forces took action to disperse violent riots in the area, the military said, adding that rocks were hurled at soldiers who responded with fire and that “hits were identified”.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, condemned Friday’s settler attack and demanded urgent international intervention, particularly by the US.

Since the start of the Gaza war, Palestinian Health Ministry records show at least 460 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, among them armed fighters from militant groups.

In the same period, at least 13 Israelis, among them two members of Israeli forces, have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an Israeli tally.

Reuters

Pro-Palestine Yale students to hunger strike over university's Israel arms investments

Group accuses famed university of 'complicity in genocide' for investing in companies that supply Israel

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Reuters
Thomas Watkins
Washington
Apr 12, 2024

A group of Yale University graduate students on Friday said they would begin a hunger strike to pressure the famed Ivy League school to divest from companies arming and equipping Israel.

The action comes after the student group Hunger Strikers for Palestine wrote to Yale president Peter Salovey on Wednesday, accusing the institution of “complicity in genocide” in Gaza and demanding that he publicly commit to ending the university's investments in arms firms.

“With the death toll of the genocide climbing daily in Gaza and the invasion of Rafah set to cause catastrophe, it is your moral responsibility to remove our institution from the list of those supporting genocide,” the group wrote.

The letter gave Mr Salovey until Friday to make a public statement. When that was not forthcoming, students said they would begin hunger striking on Saturday.

“President Salovey has failed to respond. The strikers will continue to fast until their demands are met,” the group said in a statement.

READ MORE

US airman stages hunger strike outside White House in solidarity with Gaza

A Yale representative told The National that the university is “steadfastly committed to free expression and the right to peaceful protest, values that are foundational to our academic community”.

At the end of last year, the university's Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility was asked to consider a policy of divestment encompassing manufacturers of military weapons.

The committee “has looked into the issue and is preparing to provide an update to the community in the coming weeks”, the representative said.

The representative added that “students participating in a hunger strike are encouraged to consult with clinicians at Yale Health”.

A long-time Yale faculty member told The National that about 10 students were set to participate in the hunger strike, though that number was expected to grow at the weekend.

As of last June, Yale had an endowment of more than $40 billion, according to its investment office.

The student statement said more than $1.3 billion of this is managed by an investment firm with shares in aerospace companies Aerojet Rocketdyne and Howmet Manufacturing, as well as separate investments in US arms companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.

Campus tension

Since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and Israel's ensuing war on Gaza, where local officials say more than 33,000 people have been killed, universities across the US have seen a surge in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents.

“For Jewish students, as well as for Muslim as well as for Arab, for those who are just walking by, I think it's been a very difficult climate on campus for all students,” the faculty member said.

“But it has been particularly difficult and scary for students who are outwardly expressing support for Palestine.”

Support for Palestinian causes has come from students of different ethnicities, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, the staffer said.

In their statement, students said Yale had provided only “repeated silence” after they sent several letters to the president and carried out protests calling on the institution to divest.

“Students have exhausted their means of communicating with the Yale administration about divesting from arms manufacturing,” they said.

They cited a precedent for divesting.

In 2006, Yale stopped investing in companies that “provided substantial assistance to the perpetrators of the genocide in Sudan”, they wrote, arguing that the same principle should be applied now, as Israel is facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice.

The US has said such allegations are “unfounded”.

On Tuesday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said there is no evidence Israel is committing genocide in Gaza but far too many civilians have been killed there.

In February, pro-Palestinian protesters at Brown University in Rhode Island ended a week-long hunger strike. They were unsuccessful in trying to force the divestiture of arms companies tied to Israel.

Palestinians visit the graves of loved ones at the start of the Eid Al Fitr festival on Wednesday. AFP

Updated: April 12, 2024, 4:48 PM

Belarus Calls LGBT Lives ‘Pornography’

“Depicting” LGBT Relationships May Be Punishable with a Prison Sentence

Anastasiia Kruope
Assistant Researcher, Europe and Central Asia

Click to expand Image
Belarusian LGBTQ activists with white-red-white flags participate in the Warsaw Equality Parade, June 25, 2022. © 2022 Sipa USA/AP Photo

Belarus has hit a new low in its targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. As of today, the definition of pornography under Belarusian law will include depictions of same-sex relationships as well as transgender people.

The Culture Ministry recently amended its decree on “erotic materials” to classify “homosexualism, lesbian love” and the “desire to live and be seen by others as a person of an opposite sex”—a reference to transgender people—as “non-traditional sexual relationship or behavior.” This places depictions of LGBT people alongside those of necrophilia, pedophilia, and voyeurism, all of which legally constitute “non-traditional relationships.”

Under Belarusian law, they all may also constitute pornography.

Public displays of pornography are punishable in Belarus with up to four years in prison. Child pornography is punishable with up to 13 years behind bars.

While it is not yet clear what kinds of depictions of LGBT people could fall under the new definition of pornography, it clearly aims to assault the dignity of sexual and gender minorities, people already demonized and at risk of persecution in Belarus.

Belarusian public officials and religious groups periodically advocate for introducing administrative and criminal liability for “non-traditional sexual relationship and gender change propaganda.” Neighboring Russia recently expanded its anti-gay propaganda law and banned the “international LGBT movement” as extremist.

In 2020, police arrested numerous peaceful protesters who demonstrated against the rigged presidential elections. Belarusian rights groups documented the systematic and widespread ill-treatment and torture of the protesters, reporting that people perceived as LGBT faced an increased risk of police violence and threats of sexualized violence.

Since then, Belarusian authorities have used public humiliation as a shaming tool against critics who are perceived to be or are LGBT. In one such instance, police forced a detainee, arrested for leaving a critical comment online, to “confess” on camera to being gay. At the end of the horrific video, he said: “I understand this is immoral, I promise to correct it.”

In their brutal assault against civil society in recent years, Belarusian authorities shut down all human rights organizations, including LGBT rights groups, leaving LGBT people with even less protection.

Belarus should annul these despicable amendments and stop cynically targeting LGBT people.

Belarus convicts a famous dissident rock band and sentences its members to correctional labor

The band's song was the anthem of protests after President Lukashenko's 2020 reelection

Associated Press
Published April 12, 2024

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian authorities on Friday convicted a famous dissident rock band, designating the band and its three members as extremist and sentencing them to two years of correctional labor. It was the latest in a yearslong crackdown on dissent that has engulfed this country of 9.5 million people.

Nizkiz band members — Alyaksandr Ilyin, Siarhei Kulsha and Dzmitry Khalyaukin — were charged with "organizing and plotting actions grossly violating public order."

In 2020, when Belarus was rocked by mass protests that erupted after President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in office in a disputed election, the band released "Rules," a song that became the protests' anthem. A music video for the song was filmed at one of the demonstrations against the country's authoritarian leader.

Lukashenko's government unleashed a brutal crackdown in response to the protests, arresting more than 35,000 people and violently beating thousands. Many have been labeled as "extremists," a designation frequently used against critics. The repressions have continued to this day.

In addition to the sentencing, the band and the musicians were also added to the state registry of extremists, which effectively means a ban on its songs and exposes Nizkiz's fans to prosecution.

The band was founded in 2008 in the city of Mogilev in the east of the country. In January 2024, Ilyin, Kulsha and Khalyaukin were arrested and initially faced petty charges, but then authorities opened a criminal case against them. They have been behind bars since then.

In February, the Viasna human rights center declared them political prisoners. According to the group, which is the oldest and the most prominent in the country, there are currently 1,387 political prisoners in Belarus, including Viasna's founder Ales Bialiatsky, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

Belarus' opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Friday urged musicians around the world "to express solidarity with their Belarusian colleagues, who were convicted over the songs of freedom."

"The Belarusian regime continues a ruthless attack on our culture," Tsikhanouskaya said in written comments sent to The Associated Press.

"Nizkiz's songs sounded during the 2020 protests," she said. "That's why the members of this popular band were brutally detained in their apartments and then convicted. It is yet another shameful act of the regime's revenge."

 

Mexico, a leading producer of illicit fentanyl, can’t get enough for medical use, study finds

Workers unpack medicine at a "mega-pharmacy" warehouse on its inauguration day in Huehuetoca, Mexico, Dec. 29, 2023. A new report released by the Mexican government Friday, April 12, 2024, says the country is facing a dire shortage of fentanyl for medical use, even as Mexican cartels pump out tons of the illicit narcotic. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

By The Associated Press

Posted April 12, 2024 4:25 pm.

 

Last Updated April 12, 2024 8:26 pm.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A report released by the Mexican government Friday says the country is facing a dire shortage of fentanyl for medical use, even as Mexican cartels pump out tons of the illicit narcotic.

The paradox was reported in a study by Mexico’s National Commission on Mental Health and Addictions. The study did not give a reason for the shortage of the synthetic opioid, which is needed for anesthesia in hospitals, but claimed it was a worldwide problem

The commission said fentanyl had to be imported, and that imports fell by more than 50% between 2022 and 2023.

Nonetheless, Mexican cartels appear to be having no problem importing tons of precursor chemicals and making their own fentanyl, which they smuggle into the United States. The report says Mexican seizures of illicit fentanyl rose 1.24 tons in 2020 to 1.85 tons in 2023.

Some of that is now spilling back across the border, with an increase in illicit fentanyl addiction reported in some Mexican border regions — a problem Mexico paradoxically blamed on the United States.

“Despite the limitations of availability in pharmaceutical fentanyl in our country, the excessive use of opiates in recent decades in the United States has had important repercussions on consumption and supply in Mexico,” the report states.

The report said that requests for addiction treatment in Mexico increased from 72 cases in 2020, to 430 cases in 2023. That sounds like a tiny number compared to the estimated 70,000 annual overdose deaths in the United States in recent years related to synthetic opioids. But in fact, the Mexican government does very little to offer addiction treatment, so the numbers probably don’t reflect the real scope of the problem.

The shortage of medical anesthetic drugs has caused some real problems in Mexico.

Local problems with the availability of morphine and fentanyl have led anesthesiologists to acquire their own supplies, carry the vials around with them, and administer multiple doses from a single vial to conserve their supply.

In 2022, anesthetics contaminated by those practices caused a meningitis outbreak in the northern state of Durango that killed about three dozen people, many of whom were pregnant women given epidurals. Several Americans died because of a similar outbreak after having surgery at clinics in the Mexican border city of Matamoros in 2023.

The response by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to those twin problems — not enough legal fentanyl, and too much of the illicit stuff — has been contradictory.

In 2023, López Obrador briefly proposed banning fentanyl even for medical use, but has not mentioned that idea lately after it drew a wave of criticism from doctors.

Meanwhile, the president has steadfastly denied that Mexican cartels produce the drug, despite overwhelming evidence that they import precursor chemicals from Asia and carry out the chemical processes to make fentanyl. López Obrador claims they only press the drug into pill form.

According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2023 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, “approximately 96 percent of all fentanyl seized by CBP originated in Mexico, with only 270 kg reaching the United States from other destinations.”

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The Associated Press

Colombia’s capital starts rationing water after reservoirs hit historically low levels



A worker washes a motorcycle at an ecological carwash in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


Restaurant owner Luis Alirio Soler shows buckets of water while his kitchen continues to operate during a 24-hour water restriction in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


A restaurant cook gets water from a bucket while the kitchen stays open during a 24-hour water restriction in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


A worker washes a car at an ecological carwash in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

April 12, 2024


BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Luis Soler is caring for water as if it were the most expensive ingredient at his restaurant in Colombia’s capital.

For the first time in 40 years, a severe drought pushed the city to start rationing tap water. At Soler’s restaurant in Bogota, nothing flowed through the pipes Friday. The city’s warnings allowed him to prepare for the change, buying bottled water for cooking purposes and storing tap water for dish washing, and since his entire neighborhood was facing the same inconvenience as the restaurant, he said he expected sales to go up, not down.

“I think the impact is not going to be much. On the contrary, we are waiting for sales to improve a little because there is no water in the neighborhood and many people are not going to cook,” Soler said.

Officials in Bogota moved to ratio water after reservoirs hit historically low levels due to the combination of high temperatures and lack of rainfall prompted by the El Niño climate phenomenon.

The rationing began Thursday. It will affect neighborhoods in 24-hour periods three times per month. Local officials will review the measure every 15 days to decide whether it should be eliminated, maintained or increased.



Panama and Colombia fail to protect migrants on Darien jungle route, Human Rights Watch says


Bogota residents had not experienced water rationing since 1997, when a technical failure in the system forced officials to restrict water service. The last drought-caused rationing was in 1984.

Officials have recommended people store only the amount of water they absolutely need, not wash cars and implement water-saving measures at home, even when they shower.

“Shower with your partner,” Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán suggested. “It is a pedagogical exercise in saving water.”

Given the recommendation not to wash cars frequently, businesses that provide that service could be affected.

“Fewer people are coming in. I imagine because people think it is not open, but it is also very good that we take care of the water,” said John Guerrero, who owns a car wash.

Bogota consumes an average of 18 cubic meters of water per second, and under the rationing system, officials are aiming to cut 2 cubic meters per second. Officials hope to fill reservoirs by more than 70% by the end of the year.

Maine governor signs bill restricting paramilitary training in response to neo-Nazi’s plan

FILE - The morning fog lifts beyond the Burton M. Cross Building, left, and the State House, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in Augusta, Maine. Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed into law a bill Friday, April 12, 2024, restricting paramilitary training in response to a neo-Nazi who wanted to create a training center for a “blood tribe.” (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

By David Sharp, The Associated Press

Posted April 12, 2024 

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A bill to restrict paramilitary training in Maine in response to a neo-Nazi who wanted to create a training center for a “blood tribe” was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Friday.

The law, which the governor signed without public comment, allows the attorney general to file for a court injunction to stop paramilitary training that’s intended to sow civil disorder — and to bring charges that carry a penalty of up to a year in jail.

Rep. Laurie Osher of Orono introduced the bill after a prominent neo-Nazi and white supremacist, Christopher Pohlhaus, sought to set up a training center on property that he ultimately sold before carrying out the plan.

“I welcome people to come to Maine and live here and work hard and make Maine a better place. But I’m not welcoming of people who want to make Maine a white ethno-state,” Osher, a Democrat, said Friday evening. “This bill is making it clear that anyone who has that intent is not welcome to do that here.”

Opponents argued that the measure could trample on constitutional rights, while supporters said it aims to prevent the creation of shadow military forces for purposes of creating civil unrest.

Osher said many constituents told her lawmakers had to do something with a rise in harassment and intolerance of a growing diversity in the state. But the law doesn’t target any specific group, she said.

Attorney General Aaron Frey said militias that don’t follow the orders of civilian leaders were already prohibited by the Maine Constitution, but that applies specifically to groups parading with guns in public or outfitted in clothing that looks like real military uniforms.

Without the new law, he said previously, he had no way to bring a criminal case against someone using military training to create civil disorder, as authorities say Pohlhaus sought to do.

Pohlhaus has hinted that if he were to try again to establish a training facility, he’d be careful to ensure the property was not in his name to avoid arousing suspicions.

Vermont took a similar action last year by banning people from owning and running paramilitary training camps. That bill came in response to a firearms training facility built without permits that neighbors called a nuisance.

The Vermont law, which came in response to a property known as Slate Ridge, prohibits people from teaching, training or demonstrating to others how to make or use firearms, explosives or incendiary devices to cause civil disorder.

It does not apply to law enforcement or educational institutions like Norwich University. Violators face up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $50,000 or both.

David Sharp, The Associated Press

 

Eleanor Coppola, matriarch of a filmmaking family, dies aged 87

13 April 2024, 02:24

Obit Eleanor Coppola. Picture: PA

She documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s best-known films, including Apocalypse Now.

Eleanor Coppola, who documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s best-known films and who raised a family of filmmakers, has died aged 87.

She died on Friday surrounded by family at home in Rutherford, California, her family announced in a statement. No cause of death was given.

Eleanor, who grew up in Orange County, California, met Francis while working as an assistant art director on his directorial debut, the Roger Corman-produced 1963 horror film Dementia 13, after had studied design at UCLA.

Within months of dating, Eleanor became pregnant and the couple were wed in Las Vegas in February 1963.

Francis and Eleanor Coppola in 1991 in Los Angeles (AP)

Their first-born, Gian-Carlo, quickly became a regular presence in his father’s films, as did their subsequent children, Roman (born in 1965) and Sofia (born in 1971). After acting in their father’s films and growing up on sets, all would go into the movies.

Gian-Carlo, who is seen in the background of many of his father’s films and had begun doing second-unit photography, died at the age of 22 in a 1986 boating accident. He was killed while riding in a boat piloted by Griffin O’Neal, son of Ryan O’Neal, who was found guilty of negligence.

Roman directed several movies of his own and regularly collaborates with Wes Anderson. He is president of his father’s San Francisco-based film company, American Zoetrope.

Sofia became one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of her generation as the writer-director of films including “Lost in Translation” and the 2023 release “Priscilla.” Sofia dedicated that film to her mother.

Beginning on 1979’s Apocalypse Now, Eleanor frequently documented the behind-the-scenes life of Francis’ films.

The Philippines-set shoot of Apocalypse Now lasted 238 days. A typhoon destroyed sets, lead actor Martin Sheen had a heart attack and a member of the construction crew died.

Eleanor documented much of the chaos in what would become one of the most famous making-of films about moviemaking, 1991’s Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

“I was just trying to keep myself occupied with something to do because we were out there for so long,” she told CNN in 1991. “They wanted five minutes for a TV promotional or something and I thought sooner of later I could get five minutes of film and then it went on to 15 minutes.

She ended up shooting 60 hours worth of footage and published Notes: On the Making of Apocalypse Now where she wrote of being a “woman isolated from my friends, my affairs and my projects” during their year in Manilla. She also frankly discusses Francis having an extra-marital affair.

They remained together and Eleanor documented several more of her husband’s films, as well as Roman’s CQ and Sofia’s Marie Antoinette. She wrote a memoir in 2008, Notes on a Life.

In 2016, at the age of 80, Eleanor made her narrative debut in Paris Can Wait, a romantic comedy starring Diane Lane. She followed that up with Love Is Love Is Love in 2020.

Eleanor died just as Francis is preparing a long-planned, self-financed epic, “Metropolis,” which is to premiere next month at the Cannes Film Festival.

By Press Association